Get your time back with properly handled payroll
Payroll errors can be both financially and reputationally damaging, as you have to contend with HMRC penalties and lost employee trust.
You cannot afford to miss a Real Time Information (RTI) deadline, get an auto-enrolment reassessment wrong, miscalculate wages or pay someone late.
Prime Accountants runs payroll for businesses ranging from sole traders to businesses with hundreds of employees, processing over 500 payrolls a month as a registered Bacs Bureau. Our payroll support is fully HMRC-compliant, ensuring that you get accurate, on-time pay every cycle from a named contact who already knows your business.
Ready to hand payroll over to people who do it properly?
How our payroll service works
Who outsourced payroll suits
Our payroll service is for any business that pays people and would rather leave payroll to someone else. This includes sole traders taking on their first employee, contractors managing CIS deductions and corporates running multi-site payrolls across weekly, fortnightly and monthly cycles. Businesses currently running payroll in-house on Sage, Xero, QuickBooks or Staffology may also benefit, particularly if payroll administration is eating into time that your finance team doesn’t have. Prime is based in the West Midlands and manages payroll for companies across the UK.
When to bring in payroll support
- You’re taking on your first employee and need to register for PAYE and set up auto-enrolment from day one.
- Your headcount has grown to the point where spreadsheets and manual RTI submissions are risky.
- You’ve had a payroll error or an HMRC penalty and want to stop the same mistake happening again.
- Your in-house payroll person is leaving and you need continuity.
- You want a disaster recovery plan in case your current system or provider fails.
How does payroll processing work?
RTI is HMRC’s requirement to report pay and deductions on or before every payday, rather than at year-end. Auto-enrolment is the legal duty to assess every employee for a workplace pension and enrol those who qualify. A Bacs Bureau is an organisation approved to submit payments directly into the Bacs payment scheme on your behalf, which is how we pay your employees and, if you choose, HMRC.
Each payroll cycle follows the same steps:
- You send us your payroll data (new starters, leavers, hours and any changes).
- We process the payroll and calculate what’s due.
- We submit RTI to HMRC on or before payday.
- We run the auto-enrolment assessment.
- We pay your employees by Bacs.
If you’d like, we’ll also remit your PAYE and National Insurance to HMRC automatically each month, preventing the problem of missed payments entirely.
How long does onboarding take?
Onboarding typically takes place over one to two payroll cycles, agreed with you in advance, to ensure that you are not in a position to run two systems at once. Once live, payslips and RTI submissions are processed to your existing pay date, whether that’s weekly, fortnightly or monthly, as it is vital that payroll is not disrupted.
What does payroll cost?
Payroll pricing depends on how many employees you have and how often you pay them. Extra services, such as payrolling benefits, P11Ds or payroll journaling, will also impact cost, but we’ll always give you a fixed quote before any work starts. As a guide, most clients find outsourcing costs considerably less than the software licences, training and cover arrangements needed to run payroll properly in-house, while also benefiting from the reduction in stress that comes from having everything handled by professionals.
What changes once payroll is outsourced
- Employees are paid accurately and on time.
- RTI and auto-enrolment obligations are met automatically, with no deadline tracking on your end.
- PAYE and NIC penalties avoided through automated HMRC remittance.
- Hours returned to you or your team that were previously spent on payroll administration.
Why growing businesses choose Prime
Anyone can process a payslip. Expert support adds value by giving you clear explanations of the process and ensuring compliance even when a deadline is tight or when your business changes shape.
Our recent payroll work
A growing education and training business
- Working with Prime since 2016
- Started with Prime managing payroll for 20 employees
- Now processing payroll for over 500 employees as the business has grown
- Onboarded and fully live within two payroll cycles
If you’d like to see how we’ve helped a business like yours, our team can talk you through a comparable example on a call.
Want a payroll partner who’s done this before, at your scale?
What our payroll clients say
“It has been a pleasure working with you over the years. I have always known our payroll is in very safe hands. Naturally, I would be very happy to recommend you to any other organisations in future, should they need payroll support.”
“We have been clients of Prime Accountants for many years and have always found them to be most helpful, highly efficient and communicative. In particular, we have regular dealings with their Payroll department, which, through the services of Prime, runs perfectly for us.”
“We’ve been using Prime Accountant’s for our payroll services and couldn’t be happier. Their process is efficient, always on time, and they communicate clearly every step of the way.”
